Raymond J. Steiner, art critic/reviewer for ART TIMES, a literary journal he helped found in 1984 and for which he serves as Editor, studied art in 1967 under Ilya Bolotowsky at SUNY New Paltz. Because of the concentration on modern abstraction at the college during the ‘‘60s, he switched his major from art to literature, changing his focus from studio painting to art history, philosophy, and criticism.

Although he neglected painting as he studied, taught, and wrote over the ensuing years, Steiner “kept his hand in” by constantly having a sketchbook close by. In 1998 he picked up the brush after nearly 40 years of abstention, once again returning to his love for the representational landscape painting that he had been urged to forego in his art classes.

Since his return to painting, his primary method is to paint in oils, on site, alla prima and, in an effort to capture the spontaneous impression, to confine himself almost exclusively to the use of the palette knife.

To date, he has been in many group shows including those at the Woodstock Artists Association, the Hudson Valley Art Association, the Pritzker Gallery, the Windham Fine Arts Gallery, and the Salmagundi Club, He has had several one-person shows: the first at the National Arts Club, NYC, in June 2004, a solo show at the Woodstock Artists Association Museum, Woodstock, NY April 2006 and in April, 2006 at Cafe Mezzaluna Bistro Latino & Gallery in Saugerties, NY. In November, 2008 he will have a solo exhibit at the Karpeles Museum, Newburgh, NY.

He is a member of the American Society of Aesthetics, Artist Fellowship, Inc., the International Association of Art Critics, The Woodstock Artists Association, the Hudson Valley Art Association, and the Salmagundi Club.